All aspects of the Environmental Protection Agency’s work relates to a location, whether it is an overall environmental assessment of the whole country for national reports or a smaller scale study of the local environment to help assess a new IPPC licensing application. Digital maps play a very important role in helping the EPA to assess the environment and track changes that occur over time.
In the EPA, GIS (Geographic Information Systems) is the term used to include all of the EPA's digital map data and the specialised software used to view these maps. The EPA has a small team of GIS experts who develop and enhance GIS datasets, and develop and support web mapping services.
EPA staff can view digital maps using web mapping technology deployed over the EPA intranet. This ensures that our scientists and licensing inspectors have access to GIS data they need to support their work.
To make the GIS data accessible to everyone, the EPA has developed an Online Mapping Service, with interactive maps, that you can access from the Interactive Maps tab of this website.
Web mapping usage conditions
The EPA has a policy of making available the GIS data that we develop, free of charge, to all groups and organisations in GIS format.
GIS data available on request include:
The EPA also holds the national library of datasets developed to support the implementation of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) in Ireland. These layers were developed in co-operation with the River Basin District projects and the Ordnance Survey of Ireland and include:
